In a famous workshop owned by the Church of Science and Technology in the middle of the City of Copper three people in plain black hooded robes were working on various machines. Two of these individuals were children. One of these children was male. His name was Gerhardt Scientia Mechanica. He appeared to be around the age of ten, had perfectly straight shoulder length grey hair, silvery grey eyes, a naturally serious expression, almost ghostly pale white skin from rarely being exposed to the sun, and his hands and arms were made of a special tungsten alloy. He had bags under his eyes from a lack of sleep as he would very often stay up for days on end working right alongside his sister without stopping to rest nearly as much as he should have. He was currently building a gun. As soon as he finished it he set it down in a crate filled with similar guns.
The other child was a female. Her name was Pixel Scientia Mechanica. She also appeared to be ten years old, had long almost metallically shiny silver hair that was just as straight as her brother’s, and cheerful eyes with irises the color of polished blue sapphire. No part of her appeared to be artificial in any way. At least from the outside. On the inside was a completely different story. Internally she was fully mechanical. There wasn’t so much as a single part of her that was truly organic. She was a sapient golem, a true artificial intelligence. More than that, she and her brother were both demigods. Their father had worked together with Scientia, the goddess of technology, in order to build Pixel. To ensure Pixel was undeniably their daughter and would be a demigod rather than just an artificial intelligence Scientia had taken a small fragment of their father’s soul and a fragment of her own soul and had merged them together in order to craft Pixel’s soul before she was first activated. Furthermore Pixel’s body was full of nanobots that healed her and allowed her to grow like a normal girl. She was currently working on making artificial body parts and organs.
Gerhardt, on the other hand, was partially organic. Apparently Scientia had offered to make a child with their father the old fashioned way but he had insisted on building one instead, partially because he simply preferred the idea of building a child and partially because he had lost the ability to reproduce naturally due to how heavily augmented his body had been at the time. Being the goddess of technology, Scientia was perfectly happy with the idea and thus Pixel was made; however Scientia apparently still wanted a child that was at least partially organic. Thus she built a cloning device and spliced together specific sections of her D.N.A. with their father’s D.N.A. and made Gerhardt’s body. The cloning device grew his body to the size and maturity of a four year old within a few days and while he was still in the device she had replaced various parts of his body including the memory centers of his brain with artificial equivalents and uploaded quite a bit of information into his mind before waking him up. He was taken out of the device and woken up on the same day they finished building Pixel and had first activated her, thus they were twins despite having been made via two very different methods.
The third individual was an adult. His name was Alexander Scientia Calculo. He appeared to be in his mid twenties though in actuality was several thousand years old, he had short black hair and a short black moustache and beard, his eyes were silvery grey just like Gerhardt’s, had similarly ghostly pale white skin as Gerhardt for the same reason, and had similar augmentations as him. He did appear more well rested, however. He was Gerhardt and Pixel’s half brother on their mother’s side and as such was a demigod just like them. He, however, had been born and raised naturally and only gained augmentations when he was already tens of thousands of years old when augmentations were first invented and reached a point they were at least equivalent in capabilities as their natural counterparts. He was only one of over a dozen older siblings they had but he was the oldest living sibling in the family and he was the one that they were the closest with by far. He was actually the one who had been raising the two of them for the past few years. He was currently working on a prototype interplanetary teleportation device he had been experimenting with.
As the three of them continued to work Gerhardt grimaced as his stomach suddenly grumbled. He had been so focused on his work that he hadn’t eaten anything in quite some time. He couldn’t remember how long it had been exactly. Several days? A week? Two weeks? Longer? He had no idea. Most of his body was mechanical so he didn’t need nearly as much food or water as fully organic individuals and he didn’t need to eat or drink as frequently. Furthermore he was a demigod which meant he technically didn’t need to eat or drink at all in order to survive. However, unlike his sister he did still get hungry just like everyone else and it was very uncomfortable.
Hearing Gerhardt’s stomach growl Alexander chuckled and set his tools down before turning to look at the young demigod. “Hungry?” He inquired in a teasing tone.
Gerhardt’s face flushed and he looked down at the ground in embarrassment, slightly ashamed of the fact that he wasn’t able to continue working indefinitely like Pixel. He wished his parents had built him as an artificial intelligence like his sister. “Y-yes…” He muttered.
Alexander smiled at him and said, “Alright. In that case, how about the three of us take a short dinner break? Come on, you two can help me cook.” He then turned and walked over to a small refrigerator they kept in a corner of the workshop. Opening up the freezer he pulled out three steaks before putting them in the microwave next to the fridge and setting it to defrost. Pixel went over to the fridge after him and took three potatoes out of a drawer inside, meanwhile Gerhardt went over to a metal cabinet and took out a can of peas as well as a pot to cook them in. The three of them then proceeded to get everything set up and cook their dinner together.
As their dinner was cooking Alexander took a small plastic folding table out of storage along with three metal folding chairs and set them up. He then set three paper plates down on the table along with three forks and knives. When their dinner was finished cooking he set one steak and one baked potato on each of the three plates and dished out the peas. After he set the pot with the remaining peas back down on the inactive burner they had been cooked on, all three of them sat down and ate their dinner together making light small talk as they ate.
After they finished eating Pixel smiled at Alexander and said, “Thank you, big brother! The steak was delicious as always!”
“Yes, thank you…” Gerhardt muttered, still embarrassed by his stomach growling earlier.
Alexander smiled at the two of them and said, “Of course! I always enjoy eating with the two of you.” He then picked up all three of their paper plates and silverware. Dumping the silverware in a small washing machine, he proceeded to throw the paper plates away. However, right as he threw the paper plates in the trash can a bright flash of leaf green light filled the workshop. Whirling around in surprise he was startled to see who he immediately recognized as Viridios. The son of Scientia’s biggest enemy, Silvanus the God of Nature. He was an elven demigod and looked extremely similar to his father. He wore a green robe made from plants, had long green hair that was reminiscent of vines, a clean shaven face, grassy green eyes, pointed ears, and very pale almost glowing skin that most with elven heritage had. He was currently glaring at Pixel and Gerhardt in a mixture of hatred, disgust, and disdain.
Panicking, Alexander cast a spell and teleported Pixel and Gerhardt over to himself. Standing in front of them defensively he demanded, “Viridios… What do you want?!”
“What do you think? To destroy you disgusting abominations of course! Don’t think that this is an isolated attack. My younger siblings are leading an assault upon the rest of you freaks as we speak. Now, the two of you should prepare to meet that heretic you called a father in the afterlife.” Viridios snarled at Alexander before turning his gaze to Pixel and Gerhardt.
Alexander snarled back. “You two, stay here and keep a barrier up. Viridios’s siblings could be waiting outside to intercept and kill you if you try running so it’s too dangerous for you to leave.” He told his younger half siblings before teleporting two seperate things to his hands. In his main hand was a pistol designed by Scientia to harm and even kill demigods. There were only a few weapons or devices in the entire world that were this powerful and almost all of them had been crafted by gods or spirits and granted to mortals for various reasons. The few that weren’t had been made with the help of demigods or fay and tended to be much bigger and less efficient than the ones made by actual gods or spirits.
In his off hand was a combat knife that had also been designed by Scientia and was capable of not only disrupting matter but outright destroying all matter the blade came in contact with and all of the energy that was contained within said matter. So it could destroy the matter that Viridios was made of, meaning he could be wounded by it just like everyone else. So if something happened to his pistol or if Viridios decided to close the distance so he couldn’t use his pistol as effectively, Alexander had back up. Finally Alexander raised a barrier around himself.
“Scientia gave you those toys, I presume? Well too bad they won’t save you.” Viridios said before raising a hand towards Alexander. However as his hand was still moving Alexander shot him blasting a hole through Viridios’s stomach. “GAH!” Viridios exclaimed, stumbling backwards.
“You were saying?” Alexander inquired in a deadpan tone.
Viridios glared at him furiously. “You know, I was going to make your deaths quick and painless. Now? Now I’ll force you to watch as I rip those two little brats to pieces while you slowly bleed to death on the ground.”
Alexander just shot him again, blasting a hole straight through his chest this time. Unfortunately Viridios didn’t just stand still so Alexander missed his heart. Alexander continued firing repeatedly until Viridios finally teleported out of the way. Suddenly a blast of leaf green arcane energy slammed into Alexander’s barrier causing tiny cracks to appear on it. As soon as the blast ended the barrier began repairing itself.
Tracking the direction of the blast to the source Alexander tried to point his pistol at Viridios again, however before he could pull the trigger Viridios teleported away again. A blast of energy hit him from another direction causing more cracks to appear. This pattern repeated for several seconds, each blast being powerful enough to punch holes straight through entire mountains but dealing no damage to anything outside of what it hit. Viridios’s goal was to kill Alexander, Gerhardt, and Pixel not destroy the city. So he was concentrating one hundred percent of the power of his attacks on Alexander’s barrier rather than spreading that power out over a large area for a more flashy effect. Thus his spells were even more devastating as each and every last one contained enough power to destroy entire cities and all of that power was directed towards a very small area with absolutely none of it being dispersed elsewhere.
Alexander knew this full well and he knew that his barrier wasn’t impenetrable and couldn’t hold out forever thus he paid very close attention to how Viridios was teleporting, searching for a pattern. Eventually finding the pattern he was looking for he preemptively aimed where he thought Viridios would teleport next and as soon as the demigod appeared Alexander pulled the trigger and shot him in the hand.
Viridios cursed, clutching his hand in pain. Snarling in fury Viridios then teleported directly in front of Alexander and proceeded to punch him while simultaneously casting a spell to enhance his strike, pouring far more energy into this spell than he had into the blasts. Thus the barrier fell and Viridios’s fist smashed into Alexander’s side, breaking several of his ribs and launching him across the room where he then slammed into an experimental teleportation device that he had been working on.
Groaning in pain Alexander tried to raise his pistol only to find his hand was empty. Looking he saw Viridios holding the pistol which he then smashed to pieces. With the pistol destroyed Viridios proceeded to raise a hand towards Alexander, obviously about to cast another spell. Seeing this Alexander quickly threw himself out of the way. A bolt of leaf green energy then narrowly missed Alexander and instead slammed into the experimental teleportation device. Moments later there was a blinding flash of light as the machine exploded.
Suddenly Alexander, Viridios, Pixel, and Gerhardt all felt their bodies stretch and change as they fell through what could only be described as some sort of rainbow colored tunnel through space and time. Finally there was another bright flash of light and all three of them were spat out of the rainbow void.
When it was over there were a few things they noticed. Fist Pixel’s sensors — which had a one mile effective radius — were suddenly flooded with an absolutely massive amount of data as they immediately began detecting hundreds of thousands if not millions of energy readings all around her. It was almost as if all that inhabited the area she was in down to the very birds, rodents, insects and every other living thing that wasn’t either a single celled organism or microscopically small had some sort of connection to magic. Not only that but only a fraction of the energy readings she was detecting were consistent with actual mages while most of the rest were not even remotely consistent with anything she had ever encountered before — though she was able to tell that all of them were mortal except for her, her brothers, and Viridios. Fortunately her sensors had been designed by her mother so they were capable of withstanding such vast amounts of data without much issue. Second, all three of them felt strange for some reason.
Pushing himself back up off the ground Alexander found it difficult to even get up on two legs, let alone balance on them and was thus forced onto all fours. The same could be said for Viridios, Gerhardt, and Pixel. Looking down at himself Alexander noticed that his body had suddenly changed drastically. First and foremost he found that his hands and feet had suddenly changed to hooves, and his arms and legs had changed to reflect his now quadrupedal form. Second, he was now covered in dull copper colored fur and had an ethereal black mane and tail that seemed to flow like oil in an invisible wind or current. Third, he felt his hood catching on something on his head. Reaching up and feeling it he found that he now had a singular spike-like protrusion sticking out of the top of his head. Feeling something strange on his back he looked and saw that he now had metallic bird-like wings. He then looked at his younger siblings and Viridios and saw that they had all undergone very similar changes.
They now appeared to be equine-esque creatures with cartoonish proportions. All three of them had horns just like unicorns from Elven mythology and wings like pegasi from Dwarven mythology. Pixel had shiny gold fur that Alexander could only assume was made from tiny strands of actual gold. She also had a shiny silver mane which he knew was made from thin strands of actual silver and an equally shiny silver tail that was presumably the same. Her clothes had changed to match her new form as well. Most of them had actually disappeared but her robe appeared to have become what was effectively a black hooded cape. Gerhardt looked much the same except his limbs, including the wings on his back, were still made of a tungsten alloy and his fur, mane, and tail were much duller and more natural looking than Pixel’s.
Viridios had light green fur, a leaf green mane and tail that had taken on an almost ethereal quality just like just like Alexander’s had and were vaguely reminiscent of vines and leaves gently blowing in a non-existent wind, and had what appeared to be some sort of tattoo of a tree on his rump.
Quickly adapting to this Viridios glared at Alexander and his horn was surrounded by a leaf green aura as he cast a spell and fired a devastating sphere of destructive arcane energy several dozen times faster than the speed of sound.
Alexander intercepted the spell with a portal, the other end of which was several miles in the sky and was directed straight upwards. He then cast another spell and grabbed the combat knife he had dropped when his hands disappeared off the ground before activating it. He then bit the handle of the knife with his mouth and teleported directly in front of Viridios. From there their battle devolved into a brawl that went on for several minutes with neither one of them gaining the upper hand over the other. That was until Viridios pulled an underhanded trick and finally managed to knock Alexander unconscious. He then prepared to cast a spell to finish Alexander off.
Before he could, however, Pixel cast a spell of her own and blasted him in the side knocking him away. “Leave my big brother alone! I won’t let you take him from us like you took daddy!” She shouted at him.
Gerhardt, having been just about to do the same thing, was shocked by this. It was unlike her to do any actual fighting. While Gerhardt didn’t have a problem with fighting or even killing others if he had no other choice, Pixel hated hurting others.
Getting back up Viridios snarled in fury. “You insolent abomination!” Viridios shouted before unleashing a beam of arcane energy at Pixel. Before it could impact her barrier, however, she vanished in a flash of silver light as Gerhardt teleported her out of the way. So instead of hitting her the beam bored several miles deep into the ground where she had previously been standing. Once she was out of harm’s way Gerhardt cast another spell and teleported Alexander’s knife to himself before biting its hilt just like Alexander had.
Viridios glared at him and cast a spell at him. However, Gerhardt teleported beside him before sliding under him and slicing his stomach open with the combat knife. Viridios screamed in agony before grabbing Gerhardt with telekinesis and flinging him away hard, causing him to crash all the way through a wall of the workshop. Viridios’s eyes then widened as he looked down at his wound and saw how badly injured he was. Knowing full well that he was now incapable of continuing to fight he teleported himself high above the workshop. He then began flapping his new wings, trying to keep himself aloft. He was actually quite good at it due to the fact he was a demigod of nature and he had thus had turned himself into a bird plenty of times in the past. He then began flying away in search of somewhere to tend his wounds, rest, and recover.
“Gerhardt!” Pixel shouted as she watched Gerhardt crash through the wall. Running over to him she saw him bleeding from the head, completely unconscious. She immediately knew that she needed to find help as soon as possible. Picking up the knife she deactivated it. Then grabbing Alexander with telekinesis she levitated him over to them and slid the knife back into a pocket of his robes. Finally she picked up both herself and Gerhardt with telekinesis before levitating the three of them high up above the tree line of the forest their workshop had apparently ended up in. Then she began looking around in search of any trace of civilization. Seeing the ocean nearby she noticed what appeared to be a city of sorts on the coast line. It was less than a mile away and she assumed that it was her best chance of finding help. So she began levitating herself and Gerhardt in the direction of the coastal city as fast as she possibly could. She didn’t know how to use her new wings and since her brothers were hurt she didn’t want to spend the time trying to figure it out, thus the reason she used telekinesis instead.
Landing in the middle of the city she found herself in the middle of a large crowd. Her father and later Alexander had both told her never to trust strangers but right now it was an emergency so she said, “Help! Someone help! My brothers are hurt! Does anyone know where a hospital is?”
Many of the equines stopped to look at her but when they saw Gerhardt and Alexander floating just behind her with blood dripping from their bodies they saw she was indeed telling the truth. One of the equines that was closest came up to her and said, “The hospital is this way, follow me!” She — as it sounded like a female — then turned and began running off in a certain direction. Pixel followed after her.
A few minutes later they arrived at the hospital. “Thank you so much!” Pixel said gratefully before running inside the hospital with Gerhardt in tow.
“You're welcome!” The equine called after her just before she and Gerhardt disappeared into the doors of the hospital.
As soon as they were inside, Pixel called out, “My brothers are hurt! Please help!”
One of the nurses came running immediately and began checking Gerhardt’s head which she saw was bleeding. She then checked Alexander’s body and saw him covered in wounds, some of which were worse than others. Grimacing, she said, “You did very well bringing them here. Please set them down so I can bring them both to the emergency room.”
Pixel complied and set her brothers down on the ground. The nurse then cast a spell and picked him up with telekinesis. “Thank you. I’ll need you to stay out here for the time being. One of our doctors will be coming to speak with you shortly.” The nurse said before turning and running to get Gerhardt to the emergency room.
Seeing some empty seats off to the side, Pixel walked over to them and sat down in one while she waited. About thirty minutes or so passed and she found herself growing restless out of concern for her father when finally a pony in a white doctor’s coat came out. He looked around for a moment before spotting her. He then approached her and said, “Hello. You’re the one who brought in those injured alicorns correct? What’s your name?”
“I’m Pixel Scientia Mechanica. My twin brother’s name is Gerhardt Scientia Mechanica and my older brother’s name is Alexander Scientia Calculo… Are… Are they going to be alright?” Pixel inquired timidly.
The doctor nodded. “Yes. They’re going to be fine. Your twin brother has a minor concussion but he should wake up in a few hours. He’s going to have a nasty headache for a few days but all he needs is some rest. So we’ll be prescribing him some over the counter painkillers for the next week or so. Fortunately Alicorns are said to heal remarkably fast so he should be better in no time. Well assuming you two really are alicorns. As for your older brother, he’s in significantly worse condition but he’ll live. Though, uh… He does appear to have suffered some brain damage so he may suffer some complications. Specifically blindness as the damage he suffered was in the occipital lobe… Ehem, Regardless, I have a few questions I want to ask if you don’t mind.”
Pixel smiled at him. She wasn’t worried about Alexander being blind in the least as she was confident that their mother could fix it when she came to visit again so the fact he would live was more than enough for her. “Alright! I’ll answer everything I can to the best of my abilities!”
“First and foremost, I need you to tell me what happened. Can you do that?”
Pixel nodded and said, “Mhm… A bad man named Viridios attacked us. He’s attacked us in the past. He wants to kill us… He… He killed our father a few years ago because daddy tried to protect us. My twin brother and I have been living with our older half brother ever since… Um… Anyways, when he attacked us again our older brother tried to protect us and while they were fighting Viridios accidentally broke a teleportation device our older brother had been building. We fell through some sort of rainbow tunnel and ended up in the forest near the city, workshop and all. Then my older brother continued fighting the bad man for a while before being knocked unconscious. Then I knocked the bad man away before he could kill our older brother and my twin brother hurt the bad man with the knife our mother gave our older brother and the bad man threw him through a wall before running away…”
The doctor’s eyes widened in horror as he heard what Pixel had to say. “O-oh… I, uh… I see… I’m so sorry to hear that… Ehem… Now, we noticed that most of your brothers’ bodies are artificial. Do you have any idea how they got their artificial body parts or who made them? They’re absolutely remarkable! We’ve never seen anything like them before!” He asked, trying to change the subject and get Pixel’s mind off of what she just told him.
“Our mother made them. Well, she made the originals. Our older brother made their current augmentations.” Pixel stated simply.
The doctor nodded. “Well, I have one, maybe two more questions for you if that’s alright. First, I see you have both a horn and wings. Might you by any chance be an alicorn?”
“Um… I’ve never heard of alicorns before but our mother and father told me my twin brother and I are demigods. Our older brother said the same thing. Daddy was just a mortal technomancer but mommy is Scientia, the goddess of technology. The man who attacked us was a demigod like me but he isn’t related to me. His name is Viridios and his father is Silvanus, the god of nature.” Pixel explained.
“Uh huh… Right…” The doctor said in a skeptical tone. He believed that she might be an alicorn but he didn’t believe the part about her being a demigod or her mother being a goddess. Then again maybe it was just a cultural difference. Perhaps wherever Pixel was from called alicorns gods and half alicorns demigods or something to that effect. After all Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used to be considered goddesses a thousand years ago so it wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility that somewhere in the world still retained that ideology. If anything the most confusing part was where in the world Pixel used to live that there were not just one but four — six if one counted Pixel and her twin brother — previously unknown alicorns running around and they had medical technology advanced enough to replace most of a pony’s body with artificial parts. “Well then, that’s all for my questions for now but would you mind if we ran a quick test to determine if you really are an alicorn or not?”
“Okay.” Pixel stated.
“Excellent. A nurse will be by in a moment.” The doctor stated before turning and walking away.
A few minutes later a unicorn nurse came walking up to Pixel with a friendly smile on her face. “Hello again. The Doctor wants me to check your magic system to see if you’re an Alicorn or not. Are you ready?”
Pixel nodded with a friendly smile on her face.
“Okay. I promise this won’t hurt a bit.” The nurse said. She then cast a spell on Pixel and was surprised to see that not only was she indeed an alicorn but she appeared to be a full alicorn rather than just half as the doctor said she would probably be. Even more surprising than that, her magic appeared to be significantly stronger than even Princess Celestia’s was reported to be. “O-oh my. Um… Excuse me for a moment.” The nurse said before running off.
A few moments later the nurse came back with yet another unicorn nurse. This new nurse cast the same spell on Pixel and got the exact same results. This pattern repeated until every single unicorn that worked at the hospital scanned Pixel and all of them got the exact same results. When Gerhardt and Alexander finally woke up they all ran the exact same test on them and got the exact same results. At that point they had to admit it wasn’t a fluke and not only were the three of them alicorns but they were all indeed significantly more powerful than Celestia was reported to be. Eventually the doctors sent an urgent letter to Princess Celestia informing her that three new alicorns had come to their hospital and gave her the results of their tests.
[The Next Day]
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both walked into the hospital and were immediately greeted by one of the Nurses. After bowing to them the nurse said, “Hello Princesses. Pixel and her twin brother Gerhardt are with their older brother Alexander and haven’t left his side ever since we cleared them to visit him. Though as far as we’re aware all three of them have refused any food or water we have offered them for some reason. We’re assuming that for the twins it’s likely lingering trauma from being attacked by the individual who murdered their parents and has apparently been hunting them for several years now. For the older brother, we honestly have no idea why he’s refusing food or water.”
“I see. Could you take us to the room they’re currently in please?” Celestia requested.
“Of course! Right this way.” The nurse said before leading Celestia and Luna to the room they were keeping Alexander in.
Walking inside the two alicorns saw Pixel laying right next to Gerhardt on his bed. Approaching them Luna said, “Hello. You’re Pixel, Gerhardt, and Alexander correct?”
Pixel raised her head and looked at Celestia. “Mhm… Who are you?” Gerhardt also raised his head but said nothing.
Alexander turned his head in the Princesses’ general direction but very clearly couldn’t actually see them. “Hello. I honestly didn’t think we’d be getting any visitors, though it’s a welcome surprise.”
Princess Celestia smiled at her and said, “I’m Princess Celestia and this is my sister Princess Luna. We’re the diarchs of Equestria. We’re here because the doctors informed us that you three were here and you three just so happen to be alicorns. I apologize, I know you’ve all already undergone this test a dozen times already but would you mind if my sister and I confirmed the validity of this for ourselves?”
Gerhardt quietly groaned in annoyance and laid back down but Pixel nodded and said, “Sure. We don’t mind.”
Alexander shrugged to the best of his abilities with his new body and said, “I don’t see why not. It’s not like it really matters in the end.”
“Thank you.” Celestia said before both her and Lunacast the same spell all the unicorn nurses and doctors had the previous night. A few moments later the spell ended.
“Well, it would appear they were not mistaken. You are all extraordinarily powerful. Especially you, Alexander” Princess Luna said, appearing quite surprised.
Pixel shook her head. “No. I don’t mean to be rude but my sensors tell me that while you are both demigods like us your magic is abnormally weak to the point it seems almost atrophied, almost as if neither of you have ever once taken the time to maintain your magical fitness. I don’t understand why but the same can be said for every unicorn I’ve encountered so far. So while our big brother is really strong my twin brother and I are just slightly above average for demigods. Your magic is just really out of shape. You could both be as strong as us fairly quickly if you started to maintain proper magical fitness.”
Hearing her say that Gerhardt grimaced. He personally wouldn’t have told a stranger any of that but he supposed it was common knowledge so it didn’t matter that much.
The Princesses appeared confused by this. “Er… You realize we aren’t actually demigods correct? Also what do you mean by sensors?” Celestia inquired.
“No. Our mother was a goddess of technology. She’s a lot more powerful than both of us combined. Furthermore her arcane energy signature is a bit different from ours and is a lot different from a mortal’s. As for my sensors, I’m a sapient golem. An artificial intelligence. Our mother took a fragment from our father’s soul and her own soul and used them to make my soul. They built my body together. I have sensors that allow me to detect all arcane energy signatures in a one mile radius around me and they’re what allow me to detect the fact that you're both demigods like me and that your magic is atrophied. My brother isn’t an artificial intelligence like me. He was made in a cloning vat by mommy by splicing certain parts of her and daddy’s D.N.A. and the cloning vat grew him to the size and maturity of a four year old in a few days. Our mother gave him augmentations and uploaded a bunch of knowledge into his brain while he was still in the vat. We’re actually twins because he was taken out of the vat and was woken up just a few minutes before I was first activated. Both of us are technically only four years old.“ Pixel explained.
At this point Gerhardt just sighed in frustration and shook his head. His sister was far too trusting and it was already too late to cut her off. Hopefully these two new demigods weren’t hostile like Viridios because he really didn’t want to have to fight right now given the fact he was still recovering from being thrown through a wall by Viridios. These ones may not have been as powerful as Viridios due to not maintaining proper fitness but there were two of them rather than just one and in a fight numbers were just as important as raw power. And since Alexander was currently blind, Gerhardt would have to be the one to do the fighting.
Alexander honestly didn’t mind. As far as he was concerned this was fairly common knowledge. Well, minus the details about Pixel and Gerhardt’s creation. So he really didn’t care if they knew or not. And while he wasn’t nearly as trusting as Pixel, he wasn’t nearly as paranoid as Gerhardt either. So he didn’t exactly trust the princesses but he didn’t believe they had any true ulterior motives either and thus saw no reason to tell them anything but the truth.
“Uh… Sister, I know that the power of the element of honesty isn’t as strong in me ever since Applejack became its new wielder but I am getting a very strong feeling that what she’s saying is the truth.” Princess Luna stated, looking at Celestia.
“I’m sorry, I require a bit of clarification. Do you believe that she’s simply telling the truth and could simply be mistaken or what she’s saying is the truth and thus a fact. There is a very large distinction between the two.” Celestia inquired.
“The latter. What she’s saying is the truth, not that she’s simply telling the truth.” Luna said in a slightly unsettled tone.
Celestia was very clearly caught off guard by this. “I… I see… Er… In that case, Pixel, Gerhardt, and Alexander, all three of you need to know that it absolutely cannot be revealed that we’re demigods. Okay?”
“Why not?” Pixel asked, not understanding the problem.
“Well for one thing most ponies wouldn’t believe you and we don’t want everypony thinking you’re either crazy or just power hungry and seeking worship. For another thing, we don’t want everypony viewing us as demigods. I spent centuries trying to convince everypony of the exact opposite. We would much prefer to be viewed as and treated like normal ponies. I wouldn’t recommend telling anypony that you are an artificial intelligence either. However, do you think you could tell us more about this ‘magical fitness’? If magic actually needs exercise like a muscle that knowledge could be of great benefit to Equestria but we would need to know how to exercise it assuming just using magic is not sufficient.” Celestia inquired.
Pixel nodded. “I guess I could write out some instructions for magical exercises.”
“Pixel, why in mother’s name are you so trusting? Ugh… Would you two mind explaining the reason why you’re here? Surely there must be a reason behind the diarchs of an entire kingdom coming to see the three of us in the hospital beyond the fact that you were told that we’re ‘alicorns’ like you.” Gerhardt asked, sitting up and looking at the two princesses.
“Before we explain our reason for being here, could you tell us what happened? We read what you told the doctor but we would like to hear it for ourselves just to make sure he didn’t leave out anything important.” Princess Luna requested.
Now realizing what Gerhardt meant and realizing she had indeed been a bit too forthcoming with information, Pixel looked at Alexander and asked, “Um… Big brother, should I…?”
Alexander chuckled and nodded. “Well we might as well just show them everything at this point so go ahead.”
“Alright.” Pixel said. She then cast a spell and made an illusory screen appear between her and the Princesses. This screen began displaying everything she had seen and an auditory illusion played everything she had heard. The Princesses were both quite surprised when instead of displaying ponies as they had expected the illusory screen depicted mostly hairless ape-like creatures, but this surprise quickly faded.
When it was over Luna looked at Celestia and asked, “Sister, correct me if I’m wrong but hadn’t Starswirl the Bearded been working on a method to travel to other realms?”
Celestia nodded. “He was. Unfortunately he never succeeded in making a way to travel between realms but he did succeed in creating a mirror to observe other realms. I believe in his notes he mentioned seeing creatures who looked remarkably similar to the ones Pixel just showed us.”
“I see. And just last night I saw the dreams of four individuals who looked extremely similar to the creatures she just showed us. Hm… Regardless, do you think it’s possible that Viridios managed to survive or do you think he may have died from his wounds in his sleep? If he did survive, what do you think we should do?These three are more powerful than us and he is clearly either as powerful if not more so than them.” Luna inquired.
Celestia shook her head. “I sincerely doubt he did. One does not typically survive being disemboweled. However, I believe we should remain cautious on the off chance he somehow did manage to survive. If he did then my first option would be to trust Twilight and her friends to stop him with the Elements of Harmony but failing that the only thing we can really do is try to become more ‘magically fit’ before he decides to attack again.”
“He’s still alive. Demigods like us are really hard to kill. That’s why our mother made those weapons, normal weapons can’t hurt us. That’s why our mother gave our big brother that gun and knife so he could defend me and Pixel better if another demigod tried to hurt us. I don’t know much about biology but I do know that organic demigods like you, me, my big brother, or Viridios can survive wounds that would kill a mortal. So he’ll survive. And he’s equally as powerful as our big brother.” Gerhardt stated.
“Well… In that case I think there might be one other option available to us.” Luna said in a grim tone. “The doctors did say that they found a knife in a pocket on Alexander’s robe. The same knife he used on Viridios perhaps?”
Celestia gasped in shock and looked at Luna in horror. “Luna! You can’t honestly be suggesting what I think you are!”
Luna shook her head. “Calm down, I only said it was an option. I don’t want it to come to that either. I would much prefer if this could be resolved peacefully. So we can treat it as a last resort assuming all other possibilities have been exhausted… Let’s just hope it never comes to that… or perhaps pray would be more apt since now we know for a fact that gods do apparently exist.”
Celestia sighed. “Fine. Though, Pixel, I noticed that Gerhardt specified organic demigods. But what about you?”
“I can survive anything as long as my brain is intact. And mommy put nano bots in me so I could grow up like a normal girl, but they can also heal most of my injuries in a matter of seconds or even let me reattach severed body parts.”
Alexander shook his head and said, “You are not keeping my knife. Our mother gave me that and I absolutely refuse to give it up. Especially with Viridios still out there somewhere. Now that I’ve made that clear, could you please answer my brother’s question and tell me why you're here?”
“Don’t worry, if it’s really that important to you we’ll allow you to keep it. However, if we let you keep it we would much prefer that one of your younger siblings train with the royal guard so they can learn how to use it properly especially since you’re now blind and can’t use it effectively on your own. We also need your word that you’ll never use it unless you, your younger siblings, or other ponies' lives are in danger and there’s absolutely no other choice.” Celestia said in a placating tone.
“Fine. You have my word. I don’t make a habit of going out and fighting other demigods to have a reason to use it in the first place and I much prefer ranged weapons anyways. And I suppose I could let Gerhardt train with your Royal Guard. I would let Pixel train with them too, but she’s a pacifist. Now, if you would please…” Alexander said, motioning for them to get to the point.
“Well, since we have confirmed that you three are indeed alicorns and exceptionally powerful ones at that, we’re here to take you back to the Canterlot with us. You see, here in Equestria alicorns are royalty. So that means you three are princes and a princess respectively. The two of us will actually be officially adopting the three of you as our nephews and niece. As such, your safety will be a priority and we’ll do everything in our power to protect you from Viridios.” Princess Luna explained.
Alexander had to hold back a laugh. “Me, your nephew? How old are you two, if I may ask?”
Celestia and Luna looked at each other in confusion for a moment before looking back at him. “Slightly over a thousand years old. Why?” Celestia inquired.
“Oh by the gods you two are still children! Er… My apologies for that outburst, I don’t mean to be rude. It's just that I’m old enough to be an ancestor of the ancestors of your ancestors. I am over ninety three thousand years old. As a reference for how old I am, humans — the creatures we used to be before our arrival here — have existed for over two hundred thousand years and I have existed for almost half of that time. There are only a select few demigods as old as I am who are still alive, and Viridios is one of them. So I just find the concept of me being your nephew rather amusing.” Alexander chuckled.
“Er… Sister, much like with Pixel earlier I am getting a very strong feeling that he’s telling the truth.” Luna stated.
“You’re joking…” Celestia said, looking at Luna in surprise.
Luna shook her head. “I’m afraid not, dear sister. He really is that old.”
“You know, if adoption of some form is a required formality I’m fine with you ‘adopting’ me as a nephew. I just find the concept amusing since I and especially my mother are so much older than you. But it is not unheard of for an individual’s aunts to be younger than them. Inversely I could adopt the two of you as my nieces. However, before either case I would like to learn a bit more about the two of you first. I mean we only just met and you’re quite literally asking to join our families together via adoption. Not to be rude but we know nothing about you and thus have no idea if we would even want you as adoptive members of our family to begin with. I’m sure you understand.” Alexander stated.
“Oh, of course. You aren’t from here so I suppose you wouldn’t be familiar with Equestrian history or us as rulers or anything of the sort. Very well, I suppose we could give the three of you at least a few weeks to study our history and become better acquainted with us before coming to a decision. After all, we can’t force you to become Equestrian royalty if you don’t want to. In the meantime you three are, of course, welcome to stay with us in our castle in Canterlot until you come to a decision. And assuming you do agree, I suppose you adopting us as your nieces would be a rather… interesting option. While rather unconventional I suppose it might be worth considering.” Celestia offered.
Alexander smiled in the princesses’ general direction. “Thank you very much for your understanding. It’s nothing against you two personally, I would just prefer to be cautious with strangers we only just met. And it was only a suggestion. As I said, I’m fine with either option. And well, while I personally don’t have any issue with staying with you in your castle, our workshop did arrive here with us and Pixel has informed me it's not too far from here. So if it’s not too much trouble I would like to move it near wherever this castle is. And don’t worry, I’m not asking for your help in moving it. We can do it ourselves fairly easily since its foundations have already been uprooted. We just need to know a good place to put it, then Pixel can open up a portal to it and Gerhardt can levitate it through said portal.”
Luna nodded. “That can be arranged easily enough. Though we would have to see it in person in order to get a good estimate of its size before we can determine an appropriate location for it.”
“Very well. Pixel can bring the five of us there after Gerhardt and I are released from the hospital.”
“Good. Then please excuse my sister and I for a moment. We’ll be going to go speak with the doctors to clear you to leave the hospital. We’ll be back in a few moments.” Celestia said before she and Luna turned and left the room.